Cool Weird Awesome with Brady Carlson

In warm months, we can open the window and let in fresh air - only that can also let in a lot of outdoor noise, too. A special sound-absorbing window design from a team at the National University of Singapore might let the air in without all the extra noise. Plus: firefighters in Medina, Ohio, rescue turtles and tortoises with some special equipment.  Novel window design reduces outdoor noise...

Physarum polycephalum is pretty smart for a slime mold. It can find its way back to the places where food had previously been even though it doesn't have a nervous system. Researchers in Germany have just figured out how this organism does it. Plus: American Beatlemania may have begun in February 1964, but George Harrison made a nice, quiet trip to southern Illinois the previous fall.  A memo...

Lasso is a prototype for an in-home recycling system. Instead of dropping your recyclables on the curb, you'd put them in the machine, to be scanned, cleaned and broken down into the raw materials that companies buy to make new cans and bottles. Plus: meet AI Art House, a site selling wall art designed by software trying to emulate some of the all time great (human) painters.  Lasso Is A Robo...

Today in 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington, having been snuck into the city to avoid a plot against his life in Baltimore. Kate Warne, the first women detective in America, was key to getting him there safely. Plus: Alex Trebek's family has donated some of the late Jeopardy! host's suits for a very fitting cause.  Pinkerton Spy, Feminist Icon (Crimereads) The woman w...

It's true, a researcher at Purdue University and her team trained four pigs on how to use a joystick and play a video game. Pigs are pretty smart, after all. Plus: if you're in need of hugs these days but aren't able to get them safely from other humans, the robot named HuggieBot 2.0 might be able to help.  Pigs show potential for ‘remarkable’ level of behavioral, mental flexibility in new st...

This week we're replaying some of our sweetest episodes of all time. In this episode from November 2020, we marked National Candy Day, and the day after Election Day, with a visit to the back row of the U.S. Senate chamber, where, for over half a century,  senators have kept a desk drawer filled with candy to share with colleagues. Plus: in Japan, candy is also fine art, thanks to the practic...

This week we're replaying some of our sweetest episodes of all time. In this episode from December 2019, researchers in Switzerland say they’ve found a way to change the color of  chocolate, and without adding any colors or dyes to it. Instead, they  use a special imprint to give it a glowing, rainbow-y patina. Plus: the annual PeepsFest is getting underway, and they're going to do a bal...

This week we're replaying some of our sweetest episodes of all time. In this episode from October 2019 we marked National Candy Corn Day. While no candy gets more hassle around Halloween time than candy corn, it also has its fans. I mean, someone's eating those 9 billion pieces produced each year. Plus: a haunted house in Utah with an unforgettably creepy name. The Saccharine History of Candy...

This week we're replaying some of our sweetest episodes of all time. In this episode from June 2019, when I was traveling to Buffalo, New York for a book event, I decided to celebrate one of the city's beloved foods: sponge candy. Meanwhile, an ice cream shop in Buffalo has done what you might expect an ice cream shop in Buffalo to do: add Buffalo sauce to the ice cream. Buffalo sponge candy (Atla...

This week we're replaying some of our sweetest episodes of all time. In this episode from April 2019, we look at Peeps, which are the stuff of candy and cultural legend. Not only are there billions of them produced, eaten and/or used in dioramas every year, there's a PeepsMobile, a converted Volkswagen Beetle with a giant yellow Peep on top, and there's PeepResearch.org - an entire website devoted...

Today is the anniversary of the release in 1954 of the classic monster movie “Creature From The Black Lagoon.” The woman who designed the creature, Milicent Patrick, was almost forgotten, but film lovers and fans have been working to make sure her story is told. Plus: for those who find working from home isn't really working, Japan has a solution that's increasingly popular: an office-in-a-box kno...

New research shows certain types of male butterflies can create an anti-pheromone they cover their partners in, hoping that the smelly chemical will ward off other males. Definitely not the most thoughtful Valentine's Day gift ever. Plus: data analysis shows the language people use about their relationships can predict a breakup months before it happens!  Butterflies Mark Their Mates To Repel...

Frost damage is a growing problem for fruit growers, but a team at Washington State University has developed a cellulose nanocrystal coating that can insulate the buds of grapes and cherries and keep them safe during cold snaps. Plus: a meteorologist who worked in Antarctica just got back the wallet he accidentally left there more than half a century ago.  Cellulose nanocrystals insulate crop...

Millions of people are wearing masks these days to protect themselves and others. And researchers in Australia have found a way to reuse those single-use, disposable masks to make new roads. Plus: it's National Pizza Day, so here's a very geometry-heavy way to slice up a pizza and still make it equal for two eaters.  Used face masks can make roads: Aust study (The West Australian)  The P...

Building new schools can take lots of time and money, but a new initiative has developed a construction method using 3D printing that they say can put an entire classroom together in a week or less. Plus: a new photo project is recreating great images from fine art and pop culture, but with all the people and characters replaced by hot dogs! The schools of the future can be built in less than a we...

Guitars as we know them date back to 16th century Europe, but stringed instruments have been around for even longer. And the earliest guitar-like instrument we've been able to find appears to have belonged to Har-Mose, who played for Queen Hatshepsut 3500 years ago in ancient Egypt. Plus: it's National Weatherpersons Day, and boy are we getting lots of weather at our show's HQ.  Guitar: The I...

It was today in 1932 that the makers of the cheese curl (or one of them, there are several origin stories) applied for a patent for their creation. Only their creation was supposed to be something entirely different. Plus: LEGO City is a bustling place, and some fans are hoping it will add bike lanes for LEGO riders.  Junk Food’s Happiest Accident (Tedium) Elmer's Cheesy History (Elmer's Chee...

A new website called the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction is taking us back through the words that have made sci-fi what it is and showing how much this genre has shaped popular culture. Plus: meet a planet that's barely orbiting a brown dwarf, some 450 light years from earth, a spot in the actual universe that seems more like science fiction.  A New Way to Trace the History of Sci-Fi...

Sagarmatha, aka Mount Everest, is the world's highest mountain, and the site of a growing environmental problem. A new initiative wants to remove trash and recyclables from the peak and turn some of them into art. Plus: a year after its founding, the Black Art Library is bringing new attention to great Black visual artists and is itself an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. A Mu...

On this day in 1976, Elvis Presley apparently got so excited describing the Fool's Gold sandwich, made at a restaurant in Denver, that he flew to Denver that night to eat it, only to fly right back to Memphis when he was done. And that's not the only food Elvis loved; did you know about his penchant for BBQ bologna?  Elvis Presley’s “Fool’s Gold” sandwich was born in Denver (Denver Post) A Di...

Champ and Major are the new White House dogs, but there have been lots of pets at the president's house over the years, including Rebecca the raccoon, who definitely left her mark on the place during Calvin Coolidge's presidency. Plus: a company in the UK just made a 500-plus pound protein bar. Do you eat it to refuel after an ultramarathon, maybe?  When Rebecca the Raccoon Ruled the White Ho...

The next Mars rover is set to land next month, and it's equipped with microphones to make the first audio recordings on another planet. So how does sound work on Mars, which has about 1 percent of the atmosphere Earth does? Plus: Saturn's ringed moon Rhea is getting a chemical coating that likely started on another moon.  New Mars rover may collect first sounds recorded on another planet (UPI...

It was on this day in 1955 that began a promotional campaign for the ages: where you could buy a box of cereal and find a deed to some land inside each specially marked box. Plus: a guy in the UK was trying to spot birds, but instead found 1,300 handmade gold coins nearly 2,000 years old.  The Yukon Square Inch Land Rush of 1955 (Amusing Planet) British Birdwatcher Accidentally Discovers 1,30...

On this day in 1917, a massive storm destroyed most of the small village of Hallsands, in southern England. Nearly everyone in town moved away after that, but one resident, Elizabeth Prettejohn, stayed for the rest of her life, until the mid 1960s. Plus: why a university in Melbourne, Australia has an upside-down statue.  The strange but true life of Elizabeth Prettejohn who lived alone in ru...

Today's an interesting anniversary for those of us doing virtual meetings, parties and play dates: the anniversary of the first transcontinental conference call, starting at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco and calling a very special guest in New York. Plus: a restaurant in Montreal is winning fans for a menu which weighs the pros and cons of the restaurant's own dishes...